Wasn’t it nice and peaceful last week? No
arguments, no shouting, no psyches, nobody walking out. I guess putting my foot
down has had the desired effect, with the unruly elements either staying away
or behaving themselves. Maybe I will start advising Tony Blair on how to deal
with his football hooligans. Mind you, Friday was not quite so peaceful – do
these people (Thorlief) realise that they are within
5mm of being thrown out? I really don’t care who is to blame, if people ‘on
notice’ are involved in loud arguments at the Amari
then they are certainly out. This is the LAST warning. I will not
risk the club’s standing at the Amari because of one
loud mouthed Norwegian. It is simply more than pathetic. Let’s have a look at a
hand from last week. First of all, we will discuss Stayman.

Thinking in Defence

How about this play problem? : -

Dealer:♠ K4WestNorthEastSouth

South♥
Q75

N-S vul♦
K93---1NT
(1)

♣ QJ1082pass3NTpasspass

pass

♠ Q973N

♥
AJ83WE

♦
AS(1)15-17

♣ 7543

You are West. You lead ♠3, ♠4 from dummy and
partner’s ♠10 is taken by declarer’s ♠J. South then
leads the ♦J which you win, what do you play now?

East has at most 3 points. Even if he has the ♣K, declarer makes 5 ♣ tricks via the finesse (South must have at least a
doubleton for his 1NT opening of course) and so East can have at most one more ♣ if he has the king. Thus South always makes 5 ♣ tricks and has, after the unfortunate ♠ lead, three ♠ tricks. If
East has the ♦Q then South certainly has
the ♥K and he develops extra tricks in ♦’s or ♥’s – the contract always makes.

So how can the contract go down? What card must West lead now?

Thinking in Defence – The Solution

The only chance of defeating the contract is if East
has the ♥K three or four times with

the♥10 or ♥9! The
layout must be something like: -

♠ K4Just
in case South, as here, has the ♥10

♥
Q75West must lead the ♥J. If dummy

♦
K93covers
with the ♥Q the East wins the ♥K

♣ QJ1082and the ♥10 is finessed. If the ♥J is not

covered then small
to the ♥K also gives

♠ Q973N♠ 1082E-W 4 ♥ tricks.

♥ AJ83WE♥ K94

♦
AS♦ 1087654It was unlucky
for South that West had to

♣ 7543♣ 6take the ♦A
immediately. South suggested

♠ AJ65a
finesse in ♦’s in the hope that West

♥
1062would
duck- South would then have

♦
QJ2‘stolen’ his 9th trick with the ♦K.

♣ AK9

Incidentally, I would not open the
South hand with a strong NT, the totally flat shape should deduct one point.
But this is a play and not a bidding problem and many players would open a
strong NT!

Requirements for Slam

♠ AQ2So, that’s covered Stayman and NT openings/overcalls
for now. I will just

♥ K98comment on a couple of other hands from Monday (18/11/02). This is the

been played 3 times before it came
to our table. I had absolutely no hesitation in simply raising 2NT to 3NT. The
previous 3 times that it had been played, it was in 6NT (-1). I asked one of
the partnerships. Apparently, ‘the books’ say that 32points is sufficient for a small slam. I have
two comments here. First of all, you do not have a combined (average) 32 count
– this hand is not worth 11 points. Totally flat hands should deduct 1 point.
Also, the requirement of about 32 or 33 points for a small slam only applies if
you have a fit for partner and/or a long suit (a source of tricks). One person
suggested to me that perhaps the hand should bid 4NT (quantitative) asking
opener to bid 6 if max. I do not consider this hand good enough even for this
more cautious approach. In actual fact, Opener had a flat 22 count (and
probably would have bid slam) and 11 tricks was the limit. So, when going slamming,
you need extras if you have no fit and/or ruffing values. For a NoTrump slam, a
long suit (source of tricks) is necessary if you do not have a real abundance
of points. The hand was played one more time, by Martin and Rosemary. Now
Martin is not renowned for cautious bidding, but he got this spot on when he
also simply raised Rosemary’s 2NT to 3NT. I wonder if the fact that Martin had
just read my booklet on hand evaluation had any influence on him being the only
other person to get this one right?

Stayman

Now ‘everybody’ plays Stayman, but as with any convention that has
been around for

The best is, in my view, ‘Garbage’ Stayman – so named because the 2♣ may be bid
on garbage. It is what most people play. In it’s
simplest form, which I will deal with here, a 2♣ over partner’s 1NT
opening (or 3♣ over a 2NT opening) promises at least one 4 card major but does not
promise anything in the way of points. Consider the East hand no. 4 from last
week. I was asked how this should be bid after partner had opened 1NT.

The
answer is answer is that it depends upon what type of Stayman you play.

♠
987432If you play a variation which allows a
2NT response (either showing both

♥ A1098majors
or a maximum – schemes that really have no merit whatsoever),

♦
106then
you simply have to transfer to ♠’s and pass. If you play Garbage

♣ 8Stayman, then you bid 2♣. You then
pass a major suit response and

convert 2♦ to 2♠. This is standard practice and promises a weak hand with

at least 54 in the majors. With a weak hand and 45(♠♥),
you would again bid Stayman, but this time convert 2♦ to 2♥. These are
weak bids and partner is not allowed to bid on. Let’s have a look at both hands:
-

WestEastAt the table where I was asked
to comment, West had

opened
1NT, I guess 16-19? East bid 2♣ and West bid 2NT

♠ AK2♠ 987432to show a maximum, although I believe
that East did not

♥
QJ6♥ A1098understand the bid and did not know
that his partner could

♦
AK42♦ 106have 19 pts. I do not like either
this NT range or this

♣ Q54♣ 8variation of Stayman. On the last round, I was sitting out,

so I spectated this hand to see
what would happen.

This time, the opening bid from Rosemary was 2NT! Needless to say, I
don’t really like this bid either (although on this hand it worked out very
well and, indeed, Benjamin Acol (Martin and Rosemary play this) does recommend
a 2NT opening of 19-21, with higher ranges opened either 2♣ or 2♦). My
personal opinion is that 2NT openings are best played as 20-21 or 20-22. You
may stretch with a good 19, but this is a bad 19 (totally flat, no
intermediates). I am willing to argue (I mean debate) with anybody, including
Albert Benjamin. After the 2NT opening, they ended up in 4♠ (-1) which
actually earned a top for Rosemary! And, knowing Martin, I think that he would
have bid 4♠ no matter what Rosemary had opened. I believe that the hand should
be opened 1♦ (with the intention of jumping to 2NT next bid). At our table, Alex
(my opponent) did indeed open 1♦, but the rest of our auction really was comical and you need to see
the complete deal to appreciate it. Bear in mind that my partner (Don) is
really just learning (I am giving him lessons) and we have only just covered
Stayman. We have not yet fully covered competitive auctions, especially
overcalls of 1NT! I am sure that Chuck would say that anybody receiving lessons
from me needs all the help they can get.

Before we look at the complete deal, a word about No Trump
overcalls, Stayman and transfers in competition. First, I would like to clarify
exactly what is meant by playing a Weak NT. A Weak NT is an opening bid with a balanced 12-14
pts. Playing a Weak NoTrump, a 1NT overcall of an opponent’s 1 of a suit is
still 15-18 etc (less in the balancing seat). The 1NT overcall is totally
independent of whether you play a Strong or Weak opening NoTrump. Now I mention
this because a few people our club (even an experienced American) were unfamiliar
with the Weak NT and thought that it also applied to a 1NT overcall.
Incidentally, common practice is that if your side opens 1NT (either Strong or
Weak), if the next hand overcalls or doubles then Stayman and transfers are all
off. I like to play Lebensohl in this situation with a cue bid as Stayman but
it depends upon exactly what the overcall was, and means (there are a lot of
artificial overcalls). You need to discuss this with your partner.

Anyway, the point I am making is that the 1NT overcall has nothing
to do with the strength of your 1NT opening. And what do you bid when your
partner has overcalled with 1NT? Easiest is simply to play transfers and
Stayman just as if he had opened 1NT.

So, let’s look at the infamous hand 4 again. At our table the
bidding took a slight twist, with NT and ‘Stayman’ again featuring, but this
time by the opponents!

(2) I believe that this is correct, better than pass. Playing weak
jump shifts, 2♠ (2-5 points, 6 card suit) is an alternative, although most people
would frown upon this with decent a 4 card ♥ suit.

(3) At the same time as bidding, Don alerted this as a weak NT(?!) –
toooo true (but he did have
a ♠ stop)! Although, of course, you should not alert your own bids! The
opponents may take advantage of this free information (at their peril) but as
far as partner (North) is concerned, this is unauthorised information and he
must bid as if he had not heard the explanation.

(4) Especially with the gratuitous information, Alex was clearly
looking for 800 or so.

(5) I suspected that my partner may interpret this as Stayman, (it
is not after a double) but I am not allowed to know that my partner has a weak
hand, I must bid as though he had said nothing. Either way, I have no other
bid.

(6) I have 4 ♥’s.

(7) What is 5 or 6 down, doubled, vulnerable?

(8) Let’s try again

(9) I’ve run out of red bidding cards, are you going any higher?

You cannot really criticise the E-W bidding, nor
the ♦10 lead (it makes no difference anyway). With a more than fortunate
lie of the cards, and a ♦ ‘suit’ headed by the
nine that produced 3 tricks! N-S chalked up +830 (+1). E-W may have considered
calling the director but he was sitting at the table! and nothing unethical
happened anyway. Sometimes you are just really unlucky, ask Karapet
.., I mean Alex.

What should the auction (assuming no
interference) on this hand be?

1♦ - 1♠ - 2NT - 3♠ - 4♠.Or maybe just simply 1♦ - 1♠ - 2NT -
4♠,

although the former really is better, just
in case opener has little tolerance for ♠’s. East could also try 4♥ at his 2nd turn. 4♠ is very unlucky to go down, and
earns a good score anyway. Of course, even the best laid plans may be thwarted
by dynamic Dons. Just one more point. Playing a strong NT, the 2NT rebid here
is 18-19. Playing a weak NT it is normally 17-18 (with 3NT as 19). Most expert
weak NT players (I can hear Chuck saying – are there any?) play the jump rebid
as 17-19 these days, leaving the 3NT rebid to show a strong hand with a long
semi-solid suit (as it is with the strong NT). After a strong 2NT rebid, it is
simplest to play any subsequent bid a game forcing.

Hand
Evaluation

This
brings me to what I consider to be a very important point – hand evaluation, and
how it may change during the auction. Consider this hand, a nice shapely 10
count.

Partner opens
with 1♠. Things are looking pretty good. Depending upon

♠ KJ63yourmethods, you will either bid 4♠, or make a
rather cautious game try

♦
K1063your
hand has suddenly become worth more than 10 points. But what if

♣ QJ85partner had opened 1♥? Not so
good now! So you bid 1♠ and partner

rebids 1NT(12-14) or
maybe 2♥. Either way, you should simply pass.

So a hand that can think about slamming when partner bids one suit
is a load of junk opposite another suit! This is what hand (re)evaluation is
all about.

Now I would not have inserted the
last paragraph if it was not relevant to a hand from

last Monday. This hand which I
will mention was a relatively minor affair. At our table I

was
playing against Chris and Ian. Ian held this hand (West No. 24) and

♠ Q65passed
as dealer and Chris opened 1♥ against silent opposition. An 11

♥ A8count, so obviously 2NT?Since you are a passed hand, it is preferable

♦
J976not
to bid 2♣ (if you thought that that was a reasonable alternative) as

♣ A862partner
may pass it. In this situation 2♣/♦ are not forcing
(unless you play

Drury)
and should be 5+ card suits. With no fit for partner and 11 points,

2NT is ‘clear-cut’? I do not think so. This is another (slightly
less obvious) hand for re-evaluation. It is a great hand opposite a 1♠ opener (or
anything except 1♥). Opposite a 1♥ (five card) opener, the hand is simply not
worth 11 points. As I mentioned above, the generally accepted rule is to deduct
1 point for a totally flat (4333) hand. In this situation, your hand is even
worse! with a doubleton in partner’s suit. Now I know that Ian is always eager
to hear any comments that I have (as is everybody else? ho, ho) and so I
mentioned that, although you cannot really say that 2NT is wrong, I considered
1NT to be a far better bid (having re-evaluated). Chris agreed, saying that he
would award 60 Brownie points for a 1NT bid and 40 for 2NT (you cannot say it
is wrong). Just out of interest, I polled a few of our leading players. Gerry
said that he thought 1NT to be a bit of an underbid, but there really was no
alternative as it was not worth 2NT (my sentiments exactly, although I do not
consider 1NT to be much of an underbid). Both Hans and Paul, on the other hand,
were of the opinion that 2NT was the only plausible bid, ‘bid 1NT and you may
miss game’! I disagree. Remember, we are playing a strong NT. 3NT is probably
only going to make if opener has 15 or more points. With such a hand and a
decent ♥ suit, he will bid again. If the ♥ suit is not too good,
Chris would have opened a strong 1NT (5 card majors are OK). You may
occasionally miss 3NT when opener has a decent 14 count, but you will go down
in 2NT far more often. Obviously opinion is divided. What do you think?

One final hand.
You are dealer and playing a strong (15-17) No Trump. What do you open?

1NT? A balanced hand with 15
points, seems obvious?!I do not agree!
When you first

pick up your
hand you evaluate its strength initially by adding up the points.

♠ KQ5You then make adjustments for long suits, intermediates etc.
This hand has

♥ KJa
long suit, but unfortunately most of the points are outside the suit. Also,

♦
A54KJ
doubleton is not worth 4 points. In my opinion, this hand is not worth a

Playing a weak NT, either 1NT or 1♣ would be an
acceptable opening, a question of style? I would choose 1NT (weak). Playing a
strong NT, open 1♣ and rebid 1NT (12-14). If you hold this hand and your RHO opens (say 1♦) do not
overcall 1NT (15-18). This is far too dangerous and as I said, the hand is not
worth 15 points. Best is simply to pass (this is a good defensive hand), the ♣ suit is
really too ropey for a two level overcall and it is not a suit that you would
particularly want partner to lead in defence. A double of an opening 1♦ bid is, of
course, out of the question with just 5 cards in the major suits. Pass is the
only bid. What happened in real life? The hand overcalled a 1♦ opening with
1NT, next hand doubled and it was 500 away on a partscore hand. These are the
kinds of swings that you cannot afford in a teams event or when playing for
money.

If you have any
interesting hands or bidding questions, then please ask me and I will cover
them. If an interesting hand occurs at the club, tell me the bidding and I will
note down the deal at the end of the session. You will get my verdict in a
following news sheet. Does anybody have a topic that they particularly would
like covered? Stayman? Transfers? Weak twos? Negative (Sputnik) doubles? Roman
Key Card Blackwood? Splinters? Opening 1NT with a five card major? Reverses?
You name it.

WestEastJust to fill up the space,
how about a ‘controversial?’

pre-empt? I held
the West hand and opened 3♣, 1st in

♠ 2♠ 43hand and vulnerable. East passed of course (3¨ would be

♥ A62♥
85strong and
forcing). LHO led ♥K and I ducked (with
the

♦ 42♦
AK987653♥6). Clearly a trump is in order, but it is far better for LHO

♣ AJ107632♣ 8to go over to partner’s ‘♥A’ so that
he can lead the trump.

LHO (Hans) was
somewhat peeved when I turned up with

the♥A and got a
ruff in dummy. When I subsequently turned up with ♣A (thus making 3♣), Hans was
rather more verbal; saying that I should not pre-empt with two aces, especially
opposite a non-passed partner, as game may be missed. Of course he was correct
and game may have been missed. Had I passed, who knows how the bidding would
have developed? 5♦ by East is unlikely to be reached opposite a passed partner and
fails on a trump lead (or 3-0 split) so should go down. 4♠ by N-S
will fail if E-W find their ♣ ruff. So who missed
game? When I am vulnerable and playing for money, my pre-empts are up to
strength. Am I right or am I right? Anyway, making 3♣ and hearing the
adverse comment(s) was much more fun. ‘I don’t mind the abuse, it’s waiting
for it that is so trying’ – The Rueful Rabbit.